Filipino...or living in the Philippines Fanatics

i cant wait to be there to visit the folks in jan 2013

Awfully quiet in here.

i miss pinas

Kamusta!

Hi Everyone, Filipino here from Manila! As my first post, I was wondering if any of you guys could give me tips. I am in the process of buying a used '02-'04 316i... Any suggetions, precautionary words, tales, things to remember would be appreciated.

Why the 316i E46? Beautiful car, tipid sa gas, it's in my budget and it's a Bimmer

Welcome! You will find tons of info here regarding the E46 except maybe for the 316/318 motor (have a 318 myself). Other than that, other mods and tips may apply to your car.First thing to do is refresh the cooling system especially in our hot tropical weather.

@ Breyton-BMW - Late reply but I'd like to say, ang Pogz ng 318 mo sir! (if that's the one in your sig ) Just curious, how much would it cost for a cooling system refresh?

I've been reading and asking around for more or less 2 weeks and I must say, I'm confused with the feedback. People are saying the e46 316i is underpowered (I have no qualms about that, in fact I don't want to go fast, I'm more of a cruising type hehe), some say it's tipid sa gas while others say it's a gas guzzler

Also, I'm confused with the pricing, there's a wide gap when it comes to the prices of the sellers (I've seen a '01 316i selling for Php380k but I've also seen some selling for close to 500k).. what's the right price for a good conditioned 01-04 316i e46?

TIA for the replies fam!

Yup, that's mine. Have had for 12 years now. Now has 85,000 kms. I redid the cooling system about three years ago and I don't use the car everyday anymore so I have no idea about costs nowadays. It is essential to redo it as from my experience, the cooling system parts kept blowing up and leaking one by one. The 316 has enough power for the road conditions here. For a 316, I would pay around 350k-450k depending on the year, mileage and overall condition of the car from a direct seller. The ones sold in the 500k range are mostly by buy and sell dealers.

Beautiful 318 indeed sir! Thanks for the quick reply, I'm happy that there are still people in this forum especially since I'm looking into getting a Bimmer myself

Typical yearly mileage for me is around 10k(km), so for an '01-'02 model good mileage that I should be looking for would be at say 80,000-90,000 (hindi laspag), but 100,000 is still acceptable right po sir?

Also, how come you don't use your 318 anymore?

Yes 100,000kms is okay. When getting your e46, research " BMW tamper dot" first and how to look for it in the gauge cluster. There are lot of unscrupulous dealers out there. I would get a manual tranny as the automatics seem to have problems around this mileage. Make sure it shifts okay and not loose. If the is a service record, much better.

I mostly use the car on Sundays nowadays when the traffic is lighter. The 19 inch wheels also make it a bit of a pain to use in our road conditions and the chin spoiler is quite low so it scrapes all the time. Even with an aluminum plate underneath, the scratching noise is painful to hear.

My thoughts exactly on the manual tranny RE: rims - I was looking to get 19" shoes as well lol Most of my driving will be from Bicutan down to Slex then to C5, into the Fort and then back. Not much potholes in the route so I'm guessing it'll be okay hehe

BMW tamper dot? -- Thank you, I need to research more regarding this

ah cluster was change..thats why you see that tamper dot...

very very quiet out here

here also no one at my work yet

anybody from cebu?